I’ve spent decades dreaming about the perfect life. It’s about time I let myself have one.

Wednesday, 31 May 2017

Local yarn bombing

There’s
been much to enjoy outdoors recently and not only naturewise. For the two last weeks in May, a stretch of the downtown riverbank was once again
adorned with a Knit ‘n’ Tag event.
This time the theme was ‘My Finland’ to celebrate the centenary year of our
country’s independence.

In addition to knitting and crocheting, diverse other kinds of handicraft techniques were also presented in the
creations mounted on the trees: weaving, sewing, quilting, appliqué, even
macramé and felting.

I couldn’t help feeling some of the pieces had
been just patched together out of a pile of random items, which is of course a
perfectly valid way to demonstrate each contributor’s individual relationship
to crafting. However, I always prefer those with a more tight-knit approach to the
theme, especially those designed to the finest detail taking every lump and
bump on the tree trunk into account.

My favourite creation entitled The Landscape of my Childhood was one of
those holistic pieces of art. The swellings on the trunk had become clouds. An
orange sun was resting where the trunk branched out into three. There was even an owl sitting in a hollow.

My other favourites included a couple of
striped pieces just because of their colourful beauty, the wrap of crocheted
portraits because of the brilliant idea, and the piece with a string of lemons
because of the positive message. When life gives you lemons use them to make lemonade
the last one was indicating. Some optimism would certainly be welcome for a nation
with ‘a brutal sense of realism’ as Jared Diamond characterises our people. It is naturally a strength in our kind of a big picture, but many of us could use a generous dose of joviality in the less grave things.

I didn’t know about the event beforehand
and will try to keep better track in the future to consider reserving a tree for
myself next time. I took most of the photos around mid-May when the riverside lindens
showed hardly any shoots yet. Now the scenes are completely transformed into
an intoxicating greenery, my favourite season under the sun.

Have a look also at my post of the previous yarn bombing event in 2015 here.